That's according to Airbus Group's CEO, Tom Enders, who hopes the initiative will free up city roads from gridlock.
Speaking at a conference in Munich, Mr Enders said: "One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground". The aviation giant sees flying taxis as the next logical step in urban transportation, and hopes ultimately to develop a network of these vehicles that can be hailed with an app in the style of car-sharing services.
The civil aircraft manufacturer is developing a self-piloted flying vehicle to ease congestion in busy urban areas. We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously.
"With flying, you don't need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads", he said. Airbus has been developing its autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) concept through Project Vahana, an internal project created to test viability and refine a prototype for urban air transport.
Flying cars may still seem outlandish and primarily the province of science fiction, but helicopter-maker Airbus actually believes that they'd be ignoring the category at their peril, given the pace and progress of technology that can help make it possible, including autonomous driving systems and electric battery tech. He also stated that "reliable sense-and-avoid technology", just showing up now in cars, is one of their target challenges. A fleet of autonomous vehicles that run on electricity generated by the sun sounds like the type of future we wouldn't mind living in. The actual design is being kept secret, but the concept would use multiple propellers and look like a relatively small drone.
The proof will still be in the flying pudding, but at least now we could get a glimpse of that later this year.
Airbus isn't waiting around for some other company or group to be the first in the flying vehicle business.
Source: Airbus Wants to Test Its Flying Car Prototype This Year
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